Portuguese self-reported oral-hygiene habits and oral status

Background: Good oral health is essential for good general health and quality of life. In Portugal, there are few studies on oral-health habits and the population's perceptions of this behaviour. Objective: The main purpose of this study was to characterise the Portuguese population's self-reported oral-health status, habits and perceptions, as well as their demands regarding national oral health-care services. Methods: A randomised group of 1,395 individuals, > 15 years of age, was selected as a representative sample of the Portuguese population. Face-to-face interviews were conducted, based on a structured questionnaire with closed and semi-closed questions. The data were submitted for statistical analysis using SPSS. Results and discussion: A sample of 1,102 individuals answered the questionnaire. The great majority of the sample (97.6%) brushed their teeth daily, 70.3% had lost permanent teeth and 6.4% were edentulous. The loss of permanent teeth was statistically associated with poor oral-hygiene habits (P < 0.01). Moreover, 50.1% of the participants had experienced difficulty eating and/or drinking, 18% had felt ashamed of the appearance of their teeth and 69.3% had experienced toothache or gingival pain. A reduction in visits to a dentist in the previous 12 months was identified mainly for people from a lower social class (31.2%) and older people (29.4%). Conclusion: Evidence suggests that oral diseases might be more prevalent in Portuguese adults than the European average. Efforts should be made to promote good oral-hygiene habits among older people and people from lower social classes

Absence of the spindle assembly checkpoint restores mitotic fidelity upon loss of sister chromatid cohesion

The fidelity of mitosis depends on cohesive forces that keep sister chromatids together. This is mediated by cohesin that embraces sister chromatid fibers from the time of their replication until the subsequent mitosis [1-3]. Cleavage of cohesin marks anaphase onset, where single chromatids are dragged to the poles by the mitotic spindle [4-6]. Cohesin cleavage should only occur when all chromosomes are properly bio-oriented to ensure equal genome distribution and prevent random chromosome segregation. Unscheduled loss of sister chromatid cohesion is prevented by a safeguard mechanism known as the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) [7, 8]. To identify specific conditions capable of restoring defects associated with cohesion loss, we screened for genes whose depletion modulates Drosophila wing development when sister chromatid cohesion is impaired. Cohesion deficiency was induced by knockdown of the acetyltransferase separation anxiety (San)/Naa50, a cohesin complex stabilizer [9-12]. Several genes whose function impacts wing development upon cohesion loss were identified. Surprisingly, knockdown of key SAC proteins, Mad2 and Mpsl, suppressed developmental defects associated with San depletion. SAC impairment upon cohesin removal, triggered by San depletion or artificial removal of the cohesin complex, prevented extensive genome shuffling, reduced segregation defects, and restored cell survival. This counterintuitive phenotypic suppression was caused by an intrinsic bias for efficient chromosome biorientation at mitotic entry, coupled with slow engagement of error-correction reactions. Thus, in contrast to SAC's role as a safeguard mechanism for mitotic fidelity, removal of this checkpoint alleviates mitotic errors when sister chromatid cohesion is compromised.Lisboa Regional Operational Programme (Lisboa 2020) through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER); Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT; Portugal); FCT [SFRH/BPD/87482/2012, SFRH /BD/52438/2013, PD/BD/52428/2013, PD/00117/2012, CRM: 0027030, PTDC/BEX-BID/0395/2014, UID/BIM/04773/2013 CBMR 1334, IF/00851/2012/CP0185/CT0004]; Association for International Cancer Research [AICR 10-0553]; EMBO Installation Grant [IG2778]; European Research Council Starting Grant [ERC-2014-STG-638917]; [PPBI-POCI-01-0145-FEDER-022122]; [LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-022170

Aspectos fitotécnicos e fitoquímicos de acessos de fáfia

The medicinal species fafia (Hebanthe eriantha), is a product of extractivism in the region of the Paraiba Valley, São Paulo state, Brazil, with endangered genetic variability. This study did an agronomical characterization and an analysis of active compounds of five accessions. This research is a partnership of UNESP-Botucatu Medicinal Plants Laboratory, Paraiba Valley Center (APTA) and CPQBA-UNICAMP Agrotechnological Division. A field experiment using completely random blocks with five accessions and seven replications was used. The stem and leaf wet/dry weights, root wet/dry weight, length of the longest stem, foliar area, foam index and pfaffic acid content samples were evaluated. Accession I1800 had root dry weight, stem and leaf dry weight, and foliar area greater than other accessions (176.16 g/plant, 7.301 kg/plant, 155.04 cm² ). Pfaffic acid content was similar to other accessions (0.640-0.366 %mm-1) Among all five accessions, there is a positive correlation among the foliar area and stem and leaf dry weight and between the foliar area and root dry weight.A espécie medicinal fáfia (Hebanthe eriantha), é um recurso extrativista da região do Vale do Paraíba, cuja variabilidade genética encontra-se ameaçada. Neste estudo realizou-se a caracterização agronômica e análise de princípio ativo de cinco acessos. Este estudo é uma parceria entre o Laboratório de Plantas Medicinais da UNESP-Botucatu, o Pólo Vale do Paraíba em Pindamonhangaba da Agência Paulista de Tecnologia dos Agronegócios (APTA) e a Divisão de Agrotecnologia do Centro Pluridisciplinar de Pesquisas Químicas Biológicas e Agrícolas (CPQBA) da UNICAMP. Foi instalado um ensaio experimental a campo em blocos casualizados com cinco acessos e sete repetições. Foram avaliadas a massa fresca e seca da parte aérea, a massa fresca e seca da raiz, o comprimento da maior haste, a área foliar, o índice de espuma e o teor de ácido fáfico das amostras. O acesso I1800 apresentou uma massa seca de raiz, massa seca da parte aérea e área foliar superior aos demais acessos (176,16 g/planta, 7,301 kg/planta, 155,04 cm² ). O teor de ácido fáfico não diferiu entre os acessos (0,640-0,366 %/mm) Existe uma correlação positiva entre área foliar e massa seca da parte aérea e entre área foliar e massa seca de raízes entre os cinco acessos.133138Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq

The Analyticity of a Generalized Ruelle's Operator

In this work we propose a generalization of the concept of Ruelle operator for one dimensional lattices used in thermodynamic formalism and ergodic optimization, which we call generalized Ruelle operator, that generalizes both the Ruelle operator proposed in [BCLMS] and the Perron Frobenius operator defined in [Bowen]. We suppose the alphabet is given by a compact metric space, and consider a general a-priori measure to define the operator. We also consider the case where the set of symbols that can follow a given symbol of the alphabet depends on such symbol, which is an extension of the original concept of transition matrices from the theory of subshifts of finite type. We prove the analyticity of the Ruelle operator and present some examples

Assessment of tobacco use and tobacco cessation counseling by Portuguese dentists

Objetivos: Avaliar o hábito tabágico e a intervenção dos médicos dentistas portugueses na prevenção e cessação tabágica dos seus pacientes. Métodos: Em 2006 foi enviado um questionário por correio para 5298 médicos dentistas sobre o seu consumo tabágico e a sua atitude relativamente à prevenção e cessação tabágica nos seus pacientes. Em 2013 foi enviado outro inquérito por e-mail para 7434 médicos dentistas. Neste inquérito acrescentaram-se perguntas para a caraterização do consumo tabágico do médico dentista e dos obstáculos na prevenção e cessação tabágica nos pacientes. Os dados foram analisados com o teste do qui-quadrado de Pearson. Resultados: Foram obtidas 1704 (32,2%) e 2048 (27,5%) respostas completas em 2006 e 2013, respetivamente. O consumo de tabaco era mais frequente (p<0,001) nos médicos dentistas do inquérito de 2006 (38.8% vs 28.4%), que apresentaram também mais tentativas e intenções para cessar o consumo (p<0,001). A conduta relativamente ao consumo tabágico dos seus pacientes é mais vincada nos médicos dentistas do inquérito de 2013 (p<0,001). O questionário de 2013 revelou que apenas poucos conhecem a abordagem 5A (17%) e prescrevem ajuda farmacológica para deixar de fumar (4%) ou uma terapia de reposição nicotínica (12%). Contudo, a maioria mostra interesse em participar em ações de formação para se preparar para ajudar os seus pacientes na cessação tabágica. Conclusão: Existe uma elevada prevalência de consumo tabágico entre os médicos dentistas portugueses mas habitualmente estes aconselham os seus pacientes a deixarem de fumar. Torna-se necessário uma maior formação dos médicos dentistas em cessação tabágica

Effect of fuels on the piston rings of the flexfuel engines / Efeito dos combustíveis nos anéis de pistão dos motores de combustível

This study describes the wear in piston rings of the internal combustion engines. The objective was to investigate, the rings wear between two engine groups, as gasoline, alcohol or blend fuel. The piston rings were acquired in a motor parts store and engine reconditioner, cataloged, identified, and chosen the samples with high mileage. The first step involved the measurement of height, thickness and ring outer diameter, to compare them with the original measurements of the manufacturers and make comparison between the groups, gasoline and flexfuel engine. In the second step, the rugosimetric parameters of the surface of the samples were checked with a rugosimeter. In the third step, a microscopic analysis was performed by a SEM for analysis of the contact surface coating of the piston rings. It was found that differences between the two groups of piston ring in respect to the wear. So, it was concluded that the wear of the rings of the two groups of engines are similar quantitatively, however, as for the rugosimetric analysis, a great variation was observed in the rings of the flexfuel motors qualitatively, when compared with the gasoline engines rings.

The SOS Pilot Study: a RCT of routine oxygen supplementation early after acute stroke—effect on recovery of neurological function at one week

Mild hypoxia is common after stroke and associated with poor long-term outcome. Oxygen supplementation could prevent hypoxia and improve recovery. A previous study of routine oxygen supplementation showed no significant benefit at 7 and 12 months. This pilot study reports the effects of routine oxygen supplementation for 72 hours on oxygen saturation and neurological outcomes at 1 week after a stroke

Predicting progression of mild cognitive impairment to dementia using neuropsychological data: a supervised learning approach using time windows

Background: Predicting progression from a stage of Mild Cognitive Impairment to dementia is a major pursuit in current research. It is broadly accepted that cognition declines with a continuum between MCI and dementia. As such, cohorts of MCI patients are usually heterogeneous, containing patients at different stages of the neurodegenerative process. This hampers the prognostic task. Nevertheless, when learning prognostic models, most studies use the entire cohort of MCI patients regardless of their disease stages. In this paper, we propose a Time Windows approach to predict conversion to dementia, learning with patients stratified using time windows, thus fine-tuning the prognosis regarding the time to conversion. Methods: In the proposed Time Windows approach, we grouped patients based on the clinical information of whether they converted (converter MCI) or remained MCI (stable MCI) within a specific time window. We tested time windows of 2, 3, 4 and 5 years. We developed a prognostic model for each time window using clinical and neuropsychological data and compared this approach with the commonly used in the literature, where all patients are used to learn the models, named as First Last approach. This enables to move from the traditional question "Will a MCI patient convert to dementia somewhere in the future" to the question "Will a MCI patient convert to dementia in a specific time window". Results: The proposed Time Windows approach outperformed the First Last approach. The results showed that we can predict conversion to dementia as early as 5 years before the event with an AUC of 0.88 in the cross-validation set and 0.76 in an independent validation set. Conclusions: Prognostic models using time windows have higher performance when predicting progression from MCI to dementia, when compared to the prognostic approach commonly used in the literature. Furthermore, the proposed Time Windows approach is more relevant from a clinical point of view, predicting conversion within a temporal interval rather than sometime in the future and allowing clinicians to timely adjust treatments and clinical appointments.FCT under the Neuroclinomics2 project [PTDC/EEI-SII/1937/2014, SFRH/BD/95846/2013]; INESC-ID plurianual [UID/CEC/50021/2013]; LASIGE Research Unit [UID/CEC/00408/2013

The stroke oxygen pilot study: a randomized control trial of the effects of routine oxygen supplementation early after acute stroke--effect on key outcomes at six months

Introduction: Post-stroke hypoxia is common, and may adversely affect outcome. We have recently shown that oxygen supplementation may improve early neurological recovery. Here, we report the six-month outcomes of this pilot study. Methods: Patients with a clinical diagnosis of acute stroke were randomized within 24 h of admission to oxygen supplementation at 2 or 3 L/min for 72 h or to control treatment (room air). Outcomes (see below) were assessed by postal questionnaire at 6 months. Analysis was by intention-to-treat, and statistical significance was set at p#0.05. Results: Out of 301 patients randomized two refused/withdrew consent and 289 (148 in the oxygen and 141 in the control group) were included in the analysis: males 44%, 51%; mean (SD) age 73 (12), 71 (12); median (IQR) National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score 6 (3, 10), 5 (3, 10) for the two groups respectively. At six months 22 (15%) patients in the oxygen group and 20 (14%) in the control group had died; mean survival in both groups was 162 days (p= 0.99). Median (IQR) scores for the primary outcome, the modified Rankin Scale, were 3 (1, 5) and 3 (1, 4) for the oxygen and control groups respectively. The covariate-adjusted odds ratio was 1.04 (95% CI 0.67, 1.60), indicating that the odds of a lower (i.e. better) score were non-significantly higher in the oxygen group (p= 0.86). The mean differences in the ability to perform basic (Barthel Index) and extended activities of daily living (NEADL), and quality of life (EuroQol) were also non-significant. Conclusions: None of the key outcomes differed at 6 months between the groups. Although not statistically significant and generally of small magnitude, the effects were predominantly in favour of the oxygen group; a larger trial, powered to show differences in longer-term functional outcomes, is now on-going. Trial Registration: Controlled-Trials.com ISRCTN12362720; Eudract.ema.europa.eu 2004-001866-4